Posted By Christopher Dempsey On October 10, 2012 @ 1:44 pm In Colorado State University,Football,Mountain West Conference | 1 Comment

FORT COLLINS – The harsh reality for glass-half-full guys as Colorado State offensive coordinator Dave Baldwin says he is, is even the most optimistic view can’t overcome what your eyes see and mind already knows to be true.

In spring football, CSU’s offense struggled. A lot.

Granted, there were key players missing on the offensive line, as well as tight end Crockett Gillmore. And it was a new system just being installed. But the alarms went off in Baldwin’s head anyway. The offense was bad then, and though he hoped it might change come fall, he understood the likelihood wasn’t great.

So now CSU is living out the offensive struggles Baldwin says he could see coming.

“We’re very, very mediocre,” he said today. “We’re not very good at all. And that’s obvious, you can see it there. We haven’t executed. We’ve self-destructed and stubbed our toe a lot. I’ve always said, you don’t fear your opponent you fear yourself, you beat yourself. And it’s evident, we’ve beat ourselves.”

Colorado State is averaging 16.0 points per game, a full touchdown less than last season and on course to be one of the lowest scoring Rams teams in program history. In six games, the CSU offense ranks 106th or worse in the nation in total offense, rushing offense, and scoring offense.

“I went through spring this year and we went through three scrimmages and really didn’t score a touchdown,” Baldwin said. “So, truthfully, I knew we were going to struggle on offense. This isn’t something that is a total surprise.

“You’ve got the tackles back (Joe Caprioglio and Jared Baird), you’ve got the tight end (Gillmore) back, you’ve got a freshman wide receiver (Joe Hansley) who is really playing well. I’m real excited about him. We should be playing better. We should be communicating better. And it should happen now. I think they see it. It’s gotta happen. I didn’t think we were going to be a dynamic offense, no. We’re better than what we’ve played, that’s for sure, and we have to play better.”